This is the time of year for new beginnings in the world of education. A new academic year is upon us, which brings new things to Ignite Christian Academy. Here are a few of the changes that you can look forward to in the 2014-2015 school year.
First, Ignite Christian Academy is adding five new full-time teachers this fall. These new teachers will bring increased teacher availability, lower student to teacher ratios, and more online classrooms each week.
In order to further expand course options, Ignite Christian Academy has joined with the University of Northwestern St. Paul to offer dual credit opportunities to high school juniors and seniors. This opportunity allows high school students to take courses that count for both high school and college credit. More information about the program, including enrollment information for spring semester, is coming soon. In the meantime, ask your education coordinator for more details.
The beginning of the new school year also comes with a new look and feel for Ignitia. Released on August 2, the fully redesigned user interface provides familiar Ignitia features with an updated, modern look. For example, the text-to-speech tool now highlights each word as it is read to promote reading comprehension. A few brand new Ignitia features also accompanied the release, including a handy note taking tool that allows students to write notes within lessons and print them in an organized document.
In addition to a new look, a few small changes to Ignitia's settings are now in effect. To help teachers identify students that need help with lessons sooner, the number of attempts allowed to meet the lesson pass threshold in Ignitia decreased from five to three. Students who wish to take more than three attempts on a lesson may request additional attempts from their teacher. Additionally, this fall students have the opportunity to redo one quiz of their choice per unit within Ignitia. This change ensures that we have matching policies between Ignitia and Switched-On Schoolhouse, and replaces the old policy of quizzes below 64% being automatically reassigned.
Lastly, we are excited to introduce a new semester reporting system for print students this school year. In the past, families who used print curriculum were required to submit a report every three months detailing the amount of time their student spent on each course during the quarter. To help reduce the amount of paperwork our families must complete, semester reporting is now in effect for students who began coursework on or after August 1. For more details about semester reports, click here.
With these changes and new course offerings, Ignite Christian Academy will continue to improve and offer a quality education to the students and families that it serves.
Mr. Joseph Bakker
Principal